A short guide to... teaching children with ADHD

This short guide will describe the impacts attention deficit, impulsivity, and hyperactivity can have on a young person's life, then explore ways in which teachers and TAs can mitigate these impacts through their work in schools. It is based on my expertise as a classroom teacher, and leader of SEND rather than medical knowledge or scientific research. 

The symptoms of ADHD are well known and include difficulty focussing and concentrating, as well as constantly moving and acting without thinking. A more comprehensive summary can be found on the NHS website (all references and links can be found below). There are many young people in our schools who display some these symptoms, only some of whom are or will ever be diagnosed with ADHD. Other factors such as trauma, mental health conditions, or learning difficulties can lead to attention deficit and hyperactivity, although may not result in a diagnosis. Nonetheless, for all young people subjected to at least some of these symptoms, the impacts on their daily life can be severe. Forming and maintaining relationships can be difficult. If a young person is often interrupting others, and cannot focus well on what their peers are saying it makes friendship hard to sustain. Independence may also develop slowly or intermittently as being distracted, forgetful and liable to risky behaviour means a child needs more support for longer as they make their way in the world. 

In education young people with ADHD (and others whose attention is limited and hyperactivity is present) are more likely to be subject to school sanctions, underperform academically, and hold negative views of themselves as learners. This is unsurprising. So much time in school is spent expecting children to sit still and listen. Tasks in classrooms can often be tedious or time consuming. We expect young people to process complex information and regularly follow a series of instructions. Every one of these examples is a huge challenge for a young person with attention deficit and hyperactivity so they can either be unable to comply, or it takes such force of will to meet the expectations that there is little space left for learning. 

As a result we see a disproportionate number of students with ADHD being subject to sanctions including internal exclusion and suspension. Similarly this group of young people is less likely to make good academic progress compared to their peers. These gaps are a national issue, and students with SEND as a whole have much worse educational outcomes than those with no identified special need. But surely, if we secure the right support (at the right time) then these students need not suffer. They should be expected to do just as well as any other student, so long as an appropriate level of additional and/or different provision is in place. 

The EEF report into meeting the needs of learners with SEND in mainstream schools identified five classroom strategies that proved to have a positive impact. This short guide focusses on three of these, detailing some examples for everyday classroom use and explaining why they are beneficial. These are; scaffolding, explicit instruction, and cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies. 

Scaffolding is temporary support used by the adult to build skill and confidence in the learner, so that over time the support is gradually removed. This first requires an accurate understanding of what a learner knows and can do, because putting scaffolding in place where it is not required is not only wasteful but also damaging as it hinders independence. Examples that are common in the classroom include sentence starters, writing frames, and prompts. A step by step approach to learning new information or practising a new skill is also a form of scaffolding< and can sometimes be described as 'chunking'. These approaches are proved to be beneficial as they reduce cognitive load, allowing a student to focus on the the key aspect of learning that the teacher/adult needs to be at the forefront of the their thinking. They can also mitigates losses in concentration by providing a structure that makes the return to learning more accessible. 

Explicit instruction is a term for teacher led approaches which see the teacher as the expert in the room. This may result in the teacher talking to students, demonstrating a skill, or modelling the learning in other ways. It can be very helpful for teachers to support their communication with visual aids and prompts, such as diagrams or icons. Similarly, artefacts or real world examples can bring meaning to the content in the classroom and it is of course imperative to deploy clear, unambiguous language. All of these elements are essential for young people with attention deficits because they provide multiple opportunities to access new information and help to eliminate extraneous detail. It can benefit teachers to practise their explanations, and even record them so that they cover precisely what is intended and avoid distractions and diversions. Research reveals that following explicit instruction with guided practice and rehearsal helps students to take on board new learning and begin to assimilate it into their existing schema. 

Cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies can be summarised as approaches that teach students how they are learning. There is good evidence that reveals the impact this has on learning when deployed well with high levels of subject specificity. Generic strategies that detach the process of learning from the subject content tend to be less successful. For example, solving a problem such as simplifying an equation is better served by teaching about resolving algebra in Maths than coverage of 'problem solving' in general. By teaching students how to learn (in your subject) they are much more likely to become increasingly independent as historians / biologists / designers. It will also, alongside retrieval practice and a well planned curriculum, support the transfer of knowledge from short term to long term memory. 

These three approaches are all elements of high quality teaching. They are already a part of many teachers' ways of working, or can be assimilated into existing practice so that small tweaks are required rather than wholesale change. It is important for teachers to be aware of their approaches, and deploy them purposefully. The remaining two strands of the approaches identified by the EEF as having a positive impact for students with SEND are flexible grouping and the use of technology. I will cover these in future short guides. 

References:

NHS summary of ADHD

(http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder-adhd/symptoms/)

EEF blog: Improving SEND outcomes 

(https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/news/eef-blog-five-a-day-to-improve-send-outcomes)

EEF report on special educational needs in mainstream schools

(https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/guidance-reports/send)

SEND review summary: right support, right place, right time

(https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-and-ap-green-paper-responding-to-the-consultation/summary-of-the-send-review-right-support-right-place-right-time) 

ADHD Foundation 

(https://www.adhdfoundation.org.uk/) 

In praise of Teaching Assistants

 

Teaching Assistants play an essential role in delivering high quality education and many students could not succeed without them. In more normal times their work is certainly varied but in responding to the difficulties caused by the pandemic they have proved themselves to be more adaptable, resilient, and compassionate than ever. They are quite simply absolute gold.

For students with special educational needs, and others, a teaching assistant acts as a key worker. They really connect and are able to unlock young people’s potential through building trusting relationships. These are developed through daily one to one conversations, regular calls and meetings with families, and TAs being a consistent presence day to day, term to term and indeed year to year. This means that every young person  has a member of staff who is an expert in their strengths and needs. Teaching Assistants are specialists in many fields, but most importantly they are expert specialists for every child they lead.

Every term Teaching Assistants review the progress made by those students for whom they act as keyworkers. This demands detailed knowledge of the student based on time spent with them and discussion with family. It also requires co-ordinating feedback from teachers and collating information from assessments to review the progress made and what the next steps should be. This is essential work that binds the triad of school, home and child. It also directly influences the level of support arranged by the SENDCo and the approaches taken by teachers.

In classrooms Teaching Assistants play an active role in making sure students can access learning. This takes many forms and includes activities such as reading text aloud, breaking down information into manageable chunks, or providing models and scaffolds that over time increase students’ independence. It is always the aim of teaching assistants to start with the least amount of help that is possible. Research confirms this is the most effective approach to securing rapid progress, increasing confidence, and developing students’ autonomy. SENDCOs should work closely with TAs and teachers to embed strong communication; teachers who liaise closely with TAs about the needs of students and how these can be met in the classroom see the greatest success.

This short article can only begin to explain the diversity of tasks TAs undertake. Whether checking for and removing nits, managing those in fight / flight mode, or giving up lunch time to speak with a psychologist or offer advice to a colleague, Teaching Assistant s always keep the children’s interests at the heart of what they do.

Inclusive organisations  are committed to adapting and increasing the level of support students require to meet high standards and Teaching Assistants are an essential part of this good quality practice. Without them some of the most vulnerable students would be further disadvantaged but the care, professionalism, and humility that TAs display mean they are an asset to schools.